Editorial Reviews

Unique among their furrowed brow peers, The Besnard Lakes are unafraid to marry textured, questing headphone sonics to the honeyed pleasure of radio hits past: the rapture of My Bloody Valentine entwined with the romance of Fleetwood Mac. Imagine dreamy Beach House riding Led Zeppelin dynamics, with unabashedly androgynous vocal harmonies. Channelling their obsessions with the paranormal as well as the dark arts, A Coliseum Complex Museum is populated by cryptozoological creatures (The Bray Road Beast, Golden Lion) while also luxuriating in natural phenomena and beauty (The Plain Moon, Nightingale). These themes are sincere yet good-humoured. The LP's title jokily refers to a landmark-heavy road sign spotted on tour in Texas, the varied emotional impulses within reflected by its environmentally warped artwork.

This release was advertised as a 2LP set. I received only a single LP. I love Besnard Lakes. I don't like being manipulated and lied to. Deceit and duplicity make me want to not use this forum in the future.

The Besnard Lakes is a Montreal-based quintet fronted by the husband and wife team of Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas. The band brings an irresistible mix of psychedelic-infused prog rock that I love to no end. Pretty much like clockwork, the Besnard Lakes treat us to a new album every three years. This is the band's 5th studio album (after 2003's "Vol. 1", 2007's "Are the Dark Horse", 2010's "Are the Roaring Night" and 2013's "Until in Excess, Imperceptible UFO").

"A Coliseum Complex Museum" (8 tracks; 39 min.) opens with a brooding "The Bray Road Best", which is followed by the harder charging "Golden Lion" (1st single), probably my favorite track on here. "Pressure of Our Plans" finds Jace and Olga on their trippiest best, almost like space rock. Side A concludes with "Towers Sent Her to Sheets of Music", and the song pretty much sounds like what you'd expect it from just the title alone. "The Plain Moon" is about as straight-forward rock as you'll get from the Besnard Lakes. "Necronomicon" and "Nightingale" finds Jace being more contemplative. It all leads to the album's closer, the epic "Tungsten 4: The Refugee", my other favorite track on here. Bottom line: the Besnard Lakes defined their sound on the must-have albums "Are the Dark Horse" and "Are the Roaring Night". The two albums since then simply continued that sound, while not quite achieving the same level of brilliance. Don't misunderstand me, "A Coliseum Complex Museum" is a fine album and a nice addition to the Besnard Lakes' catalog. Hence 4 stars (but no more than 4 stars).

Last Fall I had the great pleasure of seeing the Besnard Lakes in concert again, when they played at the Midpoint Music Festival here in Cincinnati. You haven't had the full Besnard Lakes experience yet if you haven't seen these guys live. This time again, they brought an outstanding wall-of-sound. They played from all albums (although "Are the Roaring Night" got the most tracks), and they also previewed the then-unreleased "Golden Lion". If you have a chance to see these guys perform live, do not miss them! Meanwhile, "A Coliseum Complex Museum" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED